Australian Taxation Office announces crackdown on ride-sharing services Uber, GoCatch and Lyft

BANKS will be forced to hand over details about Uber drivers under a tax office crackdown targeting an industry worth $500 million a year.

BANKS will be forced to hand over details about drivers who used ride-sharing services under a tax office crackdown on Uber, GoCatch and Lyft.

The Australian Taxation Office, concerned too many drivers are moonlighting with ride-sharing businesses and not paying their fair share of tax, will obtain all payments made in the past financial year and this financial year.

The Courier-Mail can reveal some state and federal public servants work as drivers on their days off.

The “sharing” industry is booming.

Deloitte Access Economics found one in two Australians had “participated in some form of collaborative economy” last year, and 63 per cent soon planned to.

It has been estimated that the new industry rakes in more than $500 million a year.

Last year, the ATO warned tens of thousands of Uber drivers that they faced an audit if they did not declare their income.

In 2015 the ATO warned tens of thousands of Uber drivers that they faced an audit if they did not declare their income. Picture: AFP/Geoffroy Van der Hasselt

Twelve months on, the ATO will launch a data matching blitz to find tax cheats.

The ATO will receive details of all payments made to, and accounts held by, businesses such as Uber, GoCatch and Lyft. It will obtain records of up to 60,000 people.

“The data we acquire will be electronically matched with certain sections of ATO data holdings to identify taxpayers,’’ the ATO revealed.

“The purpose of this data matching program is to ensure that taxpayers are correctly meeting their taxation obligations in relation to ride-sourcing payments.

“These obligations may include: registration, lodgement, reporting and payment responsibilities.”

It said the data matching offensive aimed to promote voluntary compliance and increase community confidence in the integrity of the tax system.

It would also serve to “obtain intelligence to increase our understanding of the behaviours and compliance profiles of individuals providing ride-sourcing services”.

Drivers providing ride-sharing services are considered to provide taxi travel and need to apply for an ABN, register for GST and charge GST on each ride-sharing trip provided. Income also needs to be declared on tax returns.

Uber said this year it had paid $2.5 million in tax in Australia in 2016.

Ride-sharing services became legal in Queensland on September 5 this year.